This invention relates to an apparatus for breaking textile fiber bales. The apparatus has at least two rotating breaker aprons or breaker rolls (hereafter designated as breaker members) which are arranged with a close spacing in series in the direction of their rotation (working direction) and which open a plurality of serially arranged textile fiber bales at their underside. The spikes of the breaker members are obliquely supported; the spikes of one breaker member are at an inclination which is oriented oppositely to the spikes of the other breaker member.
In a known bale breaking apparatus a series of textile fiber bales are moved back and forth by serially arranged, slightly spaced conveying means and, at the same time, the bales are opened at their underside. In such an apparatus, the breaker members serve simultaneously as the conveying means and the opening (breaking) means for the fiber bales. The latter therefore rest directly on the conveying means and are moved back and forth during the bale breaking operation. The number of conveying means corresponds approximately to that of the bales resting thereon. With such a simple bale breaking apparatus a high opening efficiency and mixing of the textile fiber bales can be achieved. In such a bale breaker apparatus, there are usually provided two parallel-spaced bale guiding walls which extend in the working direction (that is, in the direction of bale displacement) and which prevent a toppling of the bales in the lateral direction subsequent to the removal of the bale ties (at which time the bales usually become unstable). In the working direction, the bales are adjoined, at both sides, by equally unstable bales so that conditions may be present which could cause a bale to topple in the one or the other working direction.